----

##  Setting the Agenda: American Indian and Alaska Native Education                 Research Priorities. ERIC Digest.                                            

This Digest briefly reviews the events that led to the development              of the "American Indian and Alaska Native Education Research                    Agenda" (2001), the basic assumptions and premises underlying it,               and the priority research topics it ultimately included, organized              within six topic areas. Begun in 1998 under the Clinton                         administration, the Research Agenda was approved and released during            the first year of the Bush administration. Currently it provides a              touchstone, guiding a national effort to produce high-quality                   research focused on effective education practices and ways to                   implement them in schools and programs serving American Indian and              Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. BACKGROUNDIn 1997, more than              130 Indian organizations and individual tribes pressed the federal              government to develop a comprehensive Indian education policy. In               the preface of their "red book," this coalition reminded the federal            government about the difficult history of Indian education: 
*  The            Meriam Report (1928) and the Kennedy Report (Senate Special                     Subcommittee on Indian Education, 1969) documented the failure of               formal education and called for more Indian involvement, control,               and relevancy in the educational process. The Indian Nations At Risk            Task Force (1991) recognized "twenty years of progress" during the              1970-80s, but concluded that Indian communities were "nations at                risk" educationally. The White House Conference on Indian                       Education (1992) reached similar conclusions and made specific                  recommendations for improvement. (National Congress of American                 Indians and National Indian Education Association, 1997, p. i) 
The            following year, President Clinton signed Executive Order                        13096 (1998), which stipulated that the federal government is                   committed to improving the academic performance and reducing the                dropout rate of AI/AN students attending public schools and Bureau              of Indian Affairs schools. 
Section F of the Executive Order                   required the development and implementation of a research agenda for            AI/AN Education. The development of the Research Agenda was assigned            to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research            and Improvement (OERI) and Office of Indian Education (OIE). These              offices established a working group made up of federal and                      non-government organizations, which set out to identify a limited               set of high-priority research topics that could serve as a framework            and guide for federally sponsored research over the following                   decade. 
The working group solicited ideas and comments in general             from Native and non-Native educators and researchers, and the group             specifically sought suggestions for high-priority research topics.              Ideas and comments were solicited via a series of regional                      partnership forums; a national Research Agenda conference attended              by tribal education chairs, educators, and researchers; a tear-off              comment page on a project brochure; a visitor comment page on a                 special Web site; and solicitations at national and regional                    meetings of Native educators and researchers. In all, the working               group gathered well over 300 unique suggestions through these                   activities. 
Unlike earlier projects (e.g., Cahape, 1993), however,            the purpose of the Research Agenda project was to identify                      research "priorities," not to list the universe of possibilities.               Consequently, the sorted and combined list of suggestions was                   distributed for several review iterations by all working group                  members and an expert committee to assign priorities. The final set             of topics was discussed in a series of focus groups with educators              and Native parents, and the report was released in November                     2001. BASIC ASSUMPTIONS AND PREMISES OF THE RESEARCH AGENDAThe            Research Agenda proceeds from a set of basic assumptions about                  conducting research in Indian country. 
Research should include a              focus on success. Instead of focusing on educational and social                 barriers (i.e., deficits), educators and administrators are eager               for information about best practices. Programs, pedagogy, and                   curricula need to be systematically studied to identify both what is            and is not successful as part of a larger school reform and                     improvement effort. 
Studies must be conducted from a perspective              that respects Native languages and cultures. One of the primary ways            cultural bias can and has colored research is through the                       implementation of standards and assessments for AI/AN students that             focus on the educational goals and norms of the larger society,                 without also incorporating the perspectives of Native communities               and parents. 
Researchers, Native or non-Native, need to respect               tribal rights and work actively with the tribes and villages to find            ways to conduct research while being responsive to local concerns               and seeking to produce findings useful to locals. When research                 includes Native children as a focus in large-scale studies,                     researchers should seek the advice and support of such groups as the            National Advisory Committee on Indian Education, work closely with              the Office of Indian Education Programs (Bureau of Indian Affairs,              U.S. Department of Interior) and the Office of Indian                           Education (U.S. Department of Education), and include experienced               Native researchers as members of study teams. 
Considerable                    cultural, linguistic, economic, historical, social, and                         status (federally recognized and unrecognized) differences exist                among the Native peoples of North America. Research proposals should            take these differences into account, especially in designs for                  large-scale studies that will involve multiple tribes and                       villages. 
Research methods and issues. Determining what to study,             where, and how is a politically and ethically charged process. In               the past, educational research involving Native students and their              communities typically has been directed by outsiders and has focused            on deficits rather than strengths. It also has tended to focus on               small samples and unique populations, often restricted to the                   roughly 10 percent of Native students who attend reservation schools            or the 17 percent who attend off-reservation schools where Native               students are in the majority. Consequently, the educational                     experiences of the majority of Native students have seldom been                 studied. One of the most important needs identified in the Research             Agenda was for more resources to be concentrated on larger and more             inclusive studies than have been possible in the past. The working              group identified several other important research methodological                issues: 
* Detailed national data are needed, including over                   sampling in national studies and collecting tribal or village                   affiliation data about Native participants. 
*  Definitional issues            should be resolved by AI/AN tribes and include precise methods for              identifying who is Native, along with their tribal or village                   affiliations. 
* Research on Native students should involve                    researchers with demonstrated knowledge of Native culture(s). 
*               Research quality should receive a high priority; one measure of                 methodological quality is knowledge (on the part of researchers) of             the culture and language of the groups studied. 
*  Generalizable              research findings are needed. 
*  A clearinghouse focused on Native            education is needed; a Web site created by the working group,                   www.IndianEduResearch.net, could be used for this                               purpose. RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR AI/AN EDUCATIONThe priority              research topics fell into six general categories outlined below.                They are not listed in order of importance, and all should be                   considered to have the same level of priority. 
Educational                    outcomes of AI/AN students. We need to know much more about the                 current status of Native students on a range of outcome measures and            about the individual, family, community, classroom, and school                  factors that explain differences among students. Priority research              topics include: 
*  status of AI/AN students in terms of academic              achievement and status changes in the last two decades 
*  status              of AI/AN students in terms of educational attainment and status                 changes in the last two decades 
*  status of AI/AN students on                other education-related outcomes such as job skills and readiness,              health and fitness, substance abuse, etc. 
*  best practices and               reform models that have been demonstrated to be effective in                    enhancing academic achievement, attainment, and/or other                        education-related outcomes of AI/AN students 
Native language and              culture. Probably no subject generates more interest and discussion             than the idea of structuring education for AI/AN students around the            concepts and language that lie at the core of tribal or village                 culture. Priority research topics include: 
*  effects on                      educational outcomes for students and schools of incorporating AI/AN            language and culture into the school curriculum 
*  best practices             demonstrated as effective for implementing a culturally relevant                learning environment and identification of factors that serve as                barriers or facilitators for implementation 
Teachers, schools, and            educational resources. What happens to young people as students                 ultimately depends on their encounters with their schools,                      individual teachers, the curriculum and materials, and how those                encounters relate to their own capabilities, interests, motivations,            and experiences. Priority topics in this category include: 
*                  effective methods for developing, recruiting, and retaining                     qualified teachers for schools with large AI/AN enrollments 
*                 effective and replicable teaching approaches, models, etc. for                  enhancing outcomes for AI/AN students 
*  best practices for                   promoting positive parent or community involvement in schools                   serving AI/AN students 
AI/AN students with special needs. AI/AN               students appear to be over represented in special education and                 compensatory/remedial classes and underrepresented in classes for               gifted or talented students. Priority topics in this category                   include: 
*  personal, social, and educational characteristics of              AI/AN children in special, compensatory, and gifted or talented                 education programs, and best practices for valid assessment of                  special needs 
*  effective practices for working with AI/AN                   students with special education needs 
Early childhood education               needs of Native children. AI/AN children appear to be less prepared             on average to begin their first years of school than children in                other American racial/ethnic groups. Priority topics in this                    category include: 
*  status of infant and preschool-age AI/AN                 children on school readiness domains 
*  programs and services                 available for infants and preschool-aged AI/AN children 
Education             standards and assessments. Throughout the country, students--Native             and non-Native--are facing an unprecedented series of high-stakes               tests to determine their levels of proficiency on academic standards            established at the national, state, or local level. Priority                    research topics in this category include: 
*  characteristics of               standards and assessment systems for schools with large enrollments             of AI/AN students that are effective in improving performance and               address the unique needs and situations of those students 
*  best             practices for implementing standards and assessment systems for                 schools with large enrollments of AI/AN students WHERE TO GO FOR              MORE INFORMATIONDetails about the Executive Order, the working              group's activities and copies of most of the products resulting from            them, and the full text of the Research Agenda can be found at                  www.IndianEduResearch.net. REFERENCESCahape, P. (1993).                   Blueprints for Indian education: Research and development needs for             the 1990s (ERIC Digest). Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural            Education and Small Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.            ED 357 908) 
Clinton, W. J. (1998). American Indian and Alaska                 Native education. Executive order 13096. Federal Register, 63(154),             42681-84. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 423                        108) 
Indian Nations At Risk Task Force. (1991). Indian nations at             risk: An educational strategy for action. Final report. Washington,             DC: U.S. Department of Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction                   Service No. ED 339 587) 
Meriam, L., Brown, R. A., Cloud, H. R.,               Dale, E. E., Duke, E., Edwards, H. R., et al. (1928). The problem of            Indian administration. Report of a survey made at the request of the            Honorable Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior, and submitted to              him, February 21, 1928. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. (ERIC                   Document Reproduction Service No. ED087 573) 
National Congress of             American Indians and National Indian Education Association. (1997).             Comprehensive federal Indian education: Policy statement. A proposal            from Indian country to the White House. Washington, DC:                         Author. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 408                          137) 
Research Agenda Working Group, Strang, W., & von Glatz,                  A. (2001). American Indian and Alaska Native education research                 agenda. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. (ERIC Document            Reproduction Service No. ED 462 216) 
Senate Special Subcommittee              on Indian Education. (1969). Indian education: A national tragedy--A            national challenge. 1969 Report of the Committee on Labor and Public            Welfare, United States Senate, Made by Its Special Subcommittee on              Indian Education. Washington, DC: Author. (ERIC Document                        Reproduction Service No. ED 034 625) 
White House Conference on                Indian Education. (1992). The final report of the White House                   conference on Indian education: Executive summary. Washington, DC:              Author. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 353                          124) 
----- 
William Strang is a Senior Study Director at Westat,             a social science research firm. He led Westat's involvement in                  helping the Working Group develop the American Indian and Alaska                Native Education Research Agenda. 
Adrienne von Glatz is a research            analyst at Westat. She played a key role on Westat's Research Agenda            project. 
Patricia Cahape Hammer is the director of the ERIC                   Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. 
This                      publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational            Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under                   contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The opinions expressed herein do not                necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI, the                      Department, or AEL.                                                          **Title:** Setting the Agenda: American Indian and Alaska Native Education                 Research Priorities. ERIC Digest.                                            **Note:** Online version includes an annotated bibliography with some links to            full-text documents.                                                         **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC/CRESS, P.O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325-1348. Tel:                      800-624-9120 (Toll Free). For full text:                                        http://www.ael.org/eric/digests/edorc02-14.pdf.                              **Descriptors:** Action Research, Alaska Natives,  American Indian Education,                    American Indians, Cultural Relevance, Early Childhood Education,                 Educational Research, Elementary Secondary Education, Language of              Instruction,  Participatory Research,  Research Methodology,                     Research Needs                                                              **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests,  Research Priorities                                           
###
[Return to ERIC Digest Search Page]